Analysis of Accident Data and Evaluation of Leading Causes for Traffic Accidents in Jordan

Road safety is a primary concern and goal of highway and traffic engineers worldwide. The road network in Jordan exhibits relatively high traffic volumes, particularly in urban areas and in the Central Business District (CBD) areas of major cities. Jordan ranks one of the top countries worldwide in terms of having higher numbers of road traffic accidents leading to a relatively high number of fatalities and injuries. In the past few years in particular, the number of registered vehicles in Jordan has considerably increased. As a result, traffic volumes and Vehicle Miles of Travel (VMT) have significantly increased leading to deteriorating traffic flows and escalating traffic congestions and jams. Consequently, the number of road traffic accidents has also noticeably increased in Jordan in the past decade. Complete analysis of statistical data obtained for traffic accidents in Jordan was conducted in this study. Evaluation of the possible leading causes of traffic accidents in Jordan was also carried out. Different possible causes along with behaviors of drivers and pedestrians were investigated and correlated with the number of traffic accidents, fatalities and injuries. Jordan was found to have accident, fatality and injury rates that are considerably higher than those of other countries in the world. Nonetheless, as rates with time, the fatality and injury rates seemed to be moving in the right direction. Yet, the number of traffic accidents, fatalities and injuries looked critical. Traffic accidents and casualties were observed to be higher in summer times. More than 90 percent of traffic accidents, fatalities and injuries occurred on roads with speed limits between 40 and 60 km/h. Pedestrians composed the highest percentage of the total numbers of fatalities and injuries. The majority of driver casualties and passenger casualties (fatalities and injuries) belonged to the age group of 18-42 years. On the other hand, the highest percentage of pedestrian casualties belonged to the age group of 0-18 years. However, about 80 percent of the casualties in Jordan were males and only 20 percent were females. “Tailgating” and “not taking safety measurements during driving” were the most two important driver behaviors in terms of traffic accidents. Yet, behaviors of “using wrong lane” and “not taking safety measurements during driving” led to the highest percentages of the total number of fatalities and injuries. The majority of the pedestrian fatalities and injuries were in fact walking on road during the time of the accident occurrence and about one third of them were walking on sidewalk. Other behaviors of drivers and pedestrians were also important and created traffic complexity and hazardous situations leading to a reduction in saturation flow rates and in capacities and causing bottleneck conditions and traffic jams; hence resulting in traffic safety concerns.